Day Three Report

Pan American Games

Santo Domingo

After two races yesterday, sailors at the Pan Am Games reached the regatta halfway mark and were allowed to discard their worst race in a six-race scoreline.

A third day of large swells topped by chop proved to be the undoing of some and the ride to greater gains for others. The Pan Am Games sailing competition is hosting a total of 132 sailors from 17 countries, sailing in eight disciplines and 82.

In the Men's Mistral event Galvan (ARG) remains at the top of the leaderboard after taking a second in race 5 and the bullet in race 6, he now leads by a strong 9 points from second placed Richardo SANTOS from Brazil.

In the Mistral Women's event, boardsailor Lanee BUTLER (USA)topped the scoreboard for the third straight day on finishes of 1-3. She led at all marks during the first race and faltered in race two when she and her closest competitor, Vallee from Canada, started prematurely. After restarting, Butler trailed the fleet before rallying back to a fifth-place finish, which became her discard score.

"Now Argentina, Canada and Brazil are so close in scores that they'll be more worried about each other than me," said Butler, whose point-spread on her closest competitor is now seven. Argentina and Canada, in second and third, respectively, are separated by one point, while Brazil is two points behind in fourth.

The Laser fleet is not surprisingly being dominated by six times world champion and multiple Olympic medallist, Robert SCHEIDT (BRA) who so far has a clean sheet of six first place finishes. Behind him the battle for second and third is between Diego ROMERO (ARG) and Luttmer of Candada who have 13 and 14 points respectively.

It is Mexico leading the Laser Radial fleet as Calles stretches her lead to nine points. With 4 firsts and a second to count she discards a third. There is a tie for second place at this stage between Befar of Brazil and Rasa of Canada.

The Sunfish fleet is lead by current World Champion Eduardo CORDERO (VEN) who discards a fifth as his worst result. With only seven points he is nine ahead of local sailor Aguayo (DOM) and ten ahead of Peru's D Zimmerman who lies third.

Figueroa (ARG) leads the Hobie 16 fleet and hasn't finished outside the top two so far in this regatta. Figueroa is a seasoned Hobie 16 competitor and his list of successes includes winning the class at the 1994 ISAF World Sailing Games, finishing third at the Games in 2002 and he is ranked at number 16 in the Tornado in the ISAF World Sailing Rankings. Second and third at this stage are held by Noriega (MEX) and Arndt (BRA).

The Snipe the fight at the top is closer than in the other classes, except the J/24 and current leader B Amorim (BRA) is only three points clear of Cuban N Manso in second. Third place is held by Silverira of Uruguay on 14 points.

The hottest fight for first is in the J/24 class, where Santa Cruz (BRA) leads by one point from Tim HEALY (USA) Both teams posted their worst results yesterday, Santa Cruz finishing seventh in race six and Healy sixth in race 5. Third placed Gonzlaez (CHI) is way down on points, with 20 compared to Healy's eight.

"We feel comfortable with our speed, but we made a mistake in the first race and did a 720 (degree turn), which hurt us," said Healy, who redeemed himself in race two with a victory. "Brazil won the first race but then had a really bad second race, so we're both right where we were yesterday, with one point separating us for first and second overall."

"This is a pure boat speed regatta," said the USA Assistant Coach Geoff BECKER "The sailors who know how to deal with the waves are making huge gains downwind. Our dinghy classes are certainly struggling with it, because the sailors are more used to the kind of waves you might see in a Bay. These are real ocean waves: steeper, more of them and sometimes more confused."

Today is a scheduled lay day and racing will resume on Friday and continue through Sunday, with a minimum of two races planned for each day. If 12 races are completed, scoring rules allow an additional discard.